Edward
Baines was born in Preston and became proprietor and editor of the
Leeds Mercury and MP for Leeds. He wrote several
history books as well as financing the compilation of two early trade
directories. This major work was revised and reissued until it was
replaced by the even bigger Victoria County History (8 volumes) in
the 1900s. As well as a general history of the county and its cotton
manufacture, there are detailed accounts of every parish.

Edwin Butterworth, a
young (early 20s) journalist and amateur historian from Oldham, was
hired by Baines to visit all these parishes and his original research
notes have survived.

Hornby
was described by Butterworth as a ‘declining and desolate town,
neglected by its lords, possessing no trade and scarce any passing
traffic- there are no motives or means for improvement.’

In the valley of the
Wenning were ‘sweet pastures overhung by wood either stretching
in the bottoms or along the sides of the swelling hills’.

For Tatham Butterworth
commented that ‘The condition of the agriculturists, either in
their means or methods of farming, has varied little for a great
number of years.’

Baines included similar
accounts of the area.

‘The face of the
country along this line [ie upper end of Tatham parish] … is
extremely rugged, but scenery is frequently grand, and, in some parts
of the parish, extremely beautiful’. Hornby Castle, the
admiration of the neighbourhood, is seen in many situations to
advantage; and in clear weather, Ingleborough, presenting its immense
mass and well-defined summit in the distance, imparts a degree of
sublimity to the scene. ‘

Baines ended his
account: ‘All the farming operations of this parish and
district are conducted upon the principles of the old school, unmixed
with the alloy of modern improvements.’